This is a silly question, so I think this is just the place to ask it! I've lived in upper floor condos for almost all my adult life, so I never wondered about this. Thre was just one way to enter and exit: the front door. But now I live in a ranch condo that has two (count 'em! Two!!!!) ways to enter and exit: the front door and garage.

All my neighbors never ever use the front door. Much of this is because when they go out, it's almost always in their cars (this is fodder for another thread---their driving twenty feet to the clubhouse instead of walking), so they use the garage. But even if they are just running out to check the mail, it's always through the garage. We visited with one yesterday and started to walk towards the front door to leave and she said "Don't you want to leave through the garage?" and ushered us towards it, even though the garage door was closed and had to be opened for us to leave.

The condo is 1700 square feet, one level, so as you can imagine, there isn't much walking difference between going out the front or the garage. And they are nice and new (a year old) but not such showplaces with incredible carpet, wood, or tile that people have to try to preserve it.

Most of these folks are in their seventies and eighties, so maybe it's a generational thing? Or have I missed something about front door etiquette? If anyone can explain, I'd be grateful. I don't want to ask my neighbors since it might sound like I'm criticizing...

AltaRed

11-09-2007 04:23 PM

Have always used all doors (2 or 3 as the case may be) depending on what it is I was going outside (or inside) for. Seems dumb to purposely go through the garage if one is intending to walk down the street.

Danny

11-09-2007 04:27 PM

We ourselves rarely use the front door - just used by visitors and UPS, Fedex, etc. Even when going out for a walk or working in the yard we go through the garage side door...
we have a mud room off the garage for our shoes..especially important in winter here in Minnesota...how many people here go barefoot in the house...that's the way its done here..considered impolite to wear shoes at someone's house..take em off at the door landing...so you need to make sure you have on a good pair of clean socks!http://www.early-retirement.org/atta...ac0b7d24cb.jpg

happy2bretired

11-09-2007 04:29 PM

I use my front door when I am not going to use the car. When I go for a walk or get the mail. The garage door is reserved only for when I use the car. I am 57 years old. My mother-in-law, is in her eighties...she always has the garage door open and we use the inside door from the garage 95% of the time. Why?? I have no idea but it doesn't make any sense to me to leave your garage door open. The police are always broadcasting the message "close your garage door, we are experiencing numerous thefts from open garages.":confused:

RunningBum

11-09-2007 04:46 PM

Are they opening the overhead garage door? It seems to me those have a finite life. Just watch how the chain jerks or the drive turns, and you can see that with heavy use it'll probably break down earlier. I only open the garage when I'm taking out my car or need to pull something like the lawnmower out. Otherwise, it's the front door.

If they're using a side garage door, the whole thing about a mud room off the garage may make sense, especially with kids. I can remember having to walk around the back and coming in through the screened porch in one house as a kid.

I don't have a regular walk-in door for my garage and I like the more pleasant entry through the front anyway.

Yeah, driving 200 feet annoys me too. People are amazed that I'll walk a mile up to DD's school for events in all but the worst weather, when some of them live closer. I like avoiding the parking hassles and half my work is across a park.

RunningBum

11-09-2007 04:48 PM

Oh, and we have covenants about leaving your garage door open. They don't seem to be too enforced, but I don't want to lose my golf clubs or worry about locking my car. I'd probably forget to close it some nights so I just close it whenever I pull my car in and know I won't be going back out soon.

twaddle

11-09-2007 04:49 PM

You guys actually have room in your garage to park your car? I'm in awe. :)

samclem

11-09-2007 05:08 PM

I've lived in several homes where we almost always went through the garage, seldom through the front door.

bssc

11-09-2007 05:11 PM

We are garage people. I can park my car in my side of the garage. My wife's equipment is on her side.

cute fuzzy bunny

11-09-2007 05:28 PM

We almost never use the front door and havent in our last two houses, but we used it a lot in the house before that. About the only thing I can think of is that the garage door on our last two houses was a lot closer to the street but the one before that the front door was.

In our last house, one of the neighbors left me a bag of peaches from his tree on my front doorstep. By the time I found them about 2 weeks later (in >100 degree heat) there wasnt much left. Yummy.

Sandy

11-09-2007 05:33 PM

Mostly the garage, but we use both. Depends on what direction and activity we planning. When both cars are in the garage it is a tight fit to get through.

Coach

11-09-2007 06:05 PM

tangomonster, you may just have to ask. I'm curious to hear the answer myself.

Coach

Goonie

11-09-2007 06:12 PM

We use which ever door is closest to our intended destination. But until I was in HS, us kids were never allowed to use the front door unless we were going somewhere with our parents, or returning with them. The house rule was that the front door was for adult use only. No idea why. My grandparents and other relatives all primarily used their front doors for everyone, and back door was normally only used by them to go into the garage or to go to the backyard.

redduck

11-09-2007 06:52 PM

We almost always use the garage door, either to go in or out, walking or driving. It doesn't make sense to me given the wear and tear on the automatic garage door opener, but I guess replacing the coils every 5-7 isn't really such a big deal.

Khan

11-09-2007 09:45 PM

The garage door for moving the car in or out, for taking out trash/recycles, for moving rinse water from washing machine to plants, & (for really bad weather. because of no steps and a large doorway) going across street to mailbox.

Other doors depending on destination.

thefed

11-09-2007 09:52 PM

back door for us. never ever used the front door in 4 years except pizza guys, UPS etc

either way you go is steps, so it stinks either way!

Nords

11-09-2007 10:16 PM

The garage door is for family, friends, & neighborhood kids.

The front door is for salesmen and proselytizers (I know, redundant).

Darryl

11-09-2007 10:47 PM

Geez with this layout they are only about 9 feet apart, Got two use em both.

FIREd

11-10-2007 12:56 AM

I always use the front door, my wife always uses the garage door. I don't get it... To get out she has to open 2 doors (the door from the kitchen to the garage plus the garage door), and then she leaves the garage door opened all day. It drives me nuts. The other night we went to bed while the garage door remained opened all night. Anyone could have walked in from the street and stolen all my tools... I think the reason I use the front door is because I grew up in a condo and the front door was the only way in. Plus the coat and shoe closet is right next to the front door. I would never ask anyone I invite to my home to use the garage door, be it a plumber.

haha

11-10-2007 01:35 AM

I've never lived in a suburban house, so even the question is puzzling to me. The house, and presumably its doors, is for people and pets. The garage is for motor vehicles and bicycles. So I would just do a self test- am I a person or a motor vehicle? If I am a person on foot I would use a door-- front or rear or side door. If I planned to drive somewhere which I generally try not to, I would use the garage door if I had a garage door.

I can see that in snowy or wet or muddy climates the garage could function as a giant mudroom, which might make it easier to keep the house clean.

Ha

Danny

11-10-2007 08:04 AM

Ha - The front door is all relative (:rolleyes: sorry!), friends and strangers. Although we do use the front door sometimes to go for a look at the stars or to frolic on the lawn during a solstice or equinox...

1. front door from entry hall onto wraparound porch
2. side door from dining room to porch
3. side french door from kitchen to lawn
4. back door from kitchen to driveway; and
5 door (not the overhead ones) in the garage

We use them all, but probably the most used is the one leading to the driveway. The overhead garage doors are only opened to remove the cars or the gas grill.

Moemg

11-10-2007 09:40 AM

My house is elevated so the front door opens into a foyer where there is a lift handy for loading groceries .Otherwise I use the other front door which is a three story walk up .

Darryl

11-10-2007 09:42 AM

Ha, your process is certainly logical. LOL

Cruisinthru

11-10-2007 09:51 AM

I live in a ranch style house and we use the garage door almost exclusively. I have a sixteen year old schnauzer who only barks when we go out the front door. She thinks that we are going for a walk or other fun activities in the neighborhood and she wants to go. If we go out the garage she thinks we are leaving in the car and she doesn't react at all! We might use the front door more when she's gone...

TromboneAl

11-10-2007 10:11 AM

I've never gone out the front door in the 9 years we've lived here. But we have a door in our garage, and we go out that way if getting the mail, etc. By going out through the big garage door, we don't have to take a key, 'cause we can use the keypad to get back in.

BTW, what is wrong with us that we have threads like this? This gist of this thread is:

I don't usually go through the garage door.
I do
I do, too
I do sometimes
I never do
I always do
I did last week
I did it yesterday, but I usually don't
I had sex in the garage (REWahoo)
I went out the side door today
There were two monk seals in my garage (Nords)
I went out the front door twice today
I did an experiment to see which way is cheaper, and I've attached a spreadsheet (me)
I go out the garage door

etc.

RunningBum

11-10-2007 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl
(Post 576778)

By going out through the big garage door, we don't have to take a key, 'cause we can use the keypad to get back in.

What happens if you lose power while you're out? Or if the keypad isn't wired (like mine) and the battery runs down (like mine did last winter, luckily I also had a key)?

Goonie

11-10-2007 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by twaddle
(Post 576616)

You guys actually have room in your garage to park your car? I'm in awe. :)

Really! What's with putting expensive junk like cars in a garage, when you can fill it up with all sorts of worthless or semi-worthless 'stuff' like mine! The last time a vehicle was parked in our garage was in 1977. We were going down to N.O. for vacation, and my van was in mid-conversion, so I just left it in there.

(Actually, my garage has been converted into a wood-shop/work-shop, so my tools and equipment are worth more than my car anyway.)

Khan

11-10-2007 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goonie
(Post 576808)

Really! What's with putting expensive junk like cars in a garage, when you can fill it up with all sorts of worthless or semi-worthless 'stuff' like mine! The last time a vehicle was parked in our garage was in 1977. We were going down to N.O. for vacation, and my van was in mid-conversion, so I just left it in there.

(Actually, my garage has been converted into a wood-shop/work-shop, so my tools and equipment are worth more than my car anyway.)

My attached garage has always had room for my (small) car; I always kept the junk to the end (and I have been sporadically working on 'getting rid of stuff').

When I was young and poor and had to scrape off ice/frost/snow or had to start a car at -20F, I vowed I would someday have an attached garage. It's part of the reason I bought this house and I do not comprehend filling a garage with junk and leaving the car outside.

Martha

11-10-2007 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl
(Post 576778)

BTW, what is wrong with us that we have threads like this? This gist of this thread is:

I don't usually go through the garage door.
I do
I do, too
I do sometimes
I never do
I always do
I did last week
I did it yesterday, but I usually don't
I had sex in the garage (REWahoo)
I went out the side door today
There were two monk seals in my garage (Nords)
I went out the front door twice today
I did an experiment to see which way is cheaper, and I've attached a spreadsheet (me)
I go out the garage door

etc.

I find that I enjoy this type of thread a lot. People asking each other questions that would feel weird if you asked your neighbor. I love hearing about mundane behaviors. Some make perfect sense and some make no sense at all.

I also enjoy knowing these little things about all your lives. I feel like I know Danny better when I see that pile of shoes at his door.

We don't have an attached garage.

Nords

11-10-2007 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl
(Post 576778)

BTW, what is wrong with us that we have threads like this?

I agree this might be an issue if it came up at a neighborhood block party or the weekend poker game.

But as you may have noticed, this discussion board ain't exactly the Algonquin Round Table. At least here we can get all these Dave-Barry-style discussions off our chests without fear of recrimination or embarrassment!

REW, you might want to stay out of my garage until the monk seals move on...

mickeyd

11-10-2007 01:52 PM

Front door: retrieving the mail, walking the dog, going out for a jog, going to neighbor's house to bug them.

Garage door: Since we both park our cars in the garage, it is used more often than any door in the house as we come and go all day long.

VaCollector

11-10-2007 02:16 PM

Front door has a key in it at all times (uhhhh....from the INSIDE)....just in case we decide to ever use it....mostly when moving furniture.

Garage door ~ only to go to the freezer or to the garage ;D ....heaven forbid that we'd ever need to find anything out there :o ....OK....the convertible calls it home, but it also sometimes has to do double duty as a shelf....

Our main door is to the den and is our only main point of entry!

TromboneAl

11-10-2007 04:16 PM

Quote:

What happens if you lose power while you're out? Or if the keypad isn't wired (like mine) and the battery runs down (like mine did last winter, luckily I also had a key)?

I agree that's important -- I have a key in a oily cloth well hidden near the house.

Quote:

REW, you might want to stay out of my garage until the monk seals move on...

;D;D

cute fuzzy bunny

11-10-2007 04:29 PM

Sigh.

I was going to make a quip about REW and the seals in the garage, but felt it was a little over the top, and obviously nobody else would go there.

I'm pleased to once again be incorrect... ;)

tangomonster

11-10-2007 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords
(Post 576829)

But as you may have noticed, this discussion board ain't exactly the Algonquin Round Table. At least here we can get all these Dave-Barry-style discussions off our chests without fear of recrimination or embarrassment!